The crackdown coincided with the return of Vladimir Putin tothe Kremlin and the appointment of his predecessor and protege,Dmitry Medvedev, as prime minister, according to the NewYork-based group.

"Since Putin's return ... not only has the tentative shifttowards liberalization of the Medvedev era been totallyreversed, but also authoritarianism in Russia has reached alevel unknown in recent history," said Rachel Denber, deputydirector of the group's Europe and Central Asia Division.

Speaking at a news conference in Moscow accompanying thepublication of its annual report on human rights worldwide,Denber also criticized the government's stance toward the West.

Since Putin started a six-year term in May, he has signedlaws restricting protests, demanding foreign-fundednon-governmental organizations register as "foreign agents," andsetting new rules on treason that critics say could place almostanyone who associates with foreigners at risk of prosecution.

Several opposition leaders and activists face potentialprison terms if convicted on charges Putin's critics say aretrumped up. The president's spokesman has denied the Kremlinuses courts and police to pressure critics.

"Pressure and reprisals against activists andnon-governmental organizations need to stop."

"This has been the worst year for human rights in Russia inrecent history," he said of 2012. The statement said the Kremlin"unleashed the worst political crackdown" since the breakup ofthe Soviet Union in 1991.

On Thursday evening, Moscow police dispersed protesters anddetained about 30 activists who tried to demonstrate for theright to free assembly, which they say is routinely violated bythe government.

HRW: CONCERNS ABOUT ARAB SPRING AFTERMATH

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevichsaid he had not read the report but that Russia would probablycomment later and "show that the human rights situation inRussia is not the worst."

He said the Russian ministry's own annual reports have shownthat "there are serious systemic problems in the sphere of humanrights in the United States and many European Union countries."

"Before you criticize others, you should look at yourself,"Lukashevich said at a weekly briefing.

The Human Rights Watch annual report also looked atdevelopments in the Middle East and North Africa in theaftermath of the Arab Spring uprisings. It raised concerns abouta possible return to non-democratic rule in some countries.

"The uncertainties of freedom are no reason to revert to theenforced predictability of authoritarian rule," said the group'sdirector, Kenneth Roth. "The path ahead may be treacherous, butthe alternative is to consign entire countries to a grim futureof oppression."

The report criticized Egypt's new constitution, saying vagueprovisions on speech, religion, and the family had dangerousimplications for women's rights and the exercise of socialfreedoms protected under international law.

The constitution also reflects a seeming abandonment ofefforts to exercise civilian control over the military, itadded.

Elsewhere in the region, it said, Libya has become a "weakstate" and the situation in Syria, where over 60,000 people havebeen killed in a nearly 2-year-long civil war, has deteriorated.Human Rights Watch urged the U.N. Security Council to overcomeits impasse and refer the Syrian conflict to the InternationalCriminal Court to investigate possible war crimes.